Video caption, Footage of Saturn’s northern lights taken by the Cassini spacecraft in September 2007Article informationAuthor, Daisy StephensRole, BBC News5 hours agoAn astronomer is ready to make use of essentially the most highly effective telescope ever created to get a “game-changing” view of Saturn’s northern lights.Dr James O’Donoghue from the College of Studying is a part of a group that has been awarded time with the James Webb Telescope (JWST).They hope to work out what’s inflicting the planet’s northern lights and also will observe Uranus. Dr Henrik Melin, who’s from the College of Leicester Faculty of Physics and main the analysis group, stated it might “essentially form our understanding” of each planets.Picture supply, College of ReadingImage caption, An infrared picture of Saturn, taken by the James Webb Telescope, displaying the areas the research will look atNorthern lights are typically brought on by extremely energetic charged particles, that are funnelled down and collide with a planet’s ambiance through the planet’s magnetic discipline.”Our magnetic discipline is principally an enormous defend, and the Solar’s photo voltaic wind is definitely hitting that defend and that is permitting a great deal of charged particles to return into our ambiance and create a blinding gentle present within the polar areas,” stated Dr O’Donoghue.However the precise origins of the aurora for Saturn and Uranus are rather less clear – one thing the research goals to vary.For Uranus particularly, they need to reply a key query – whether or not the aurora is brought on by interplay with the photo voltaic wind like on Earth, inner sources inside the system like Jupiter, or someplace in between like Saturn.Dr O’Donoghue additionally stated he had a “secret hope” it might inform scientists extra concerning the rotation interval – day size – of the planets.”I actually am wanting ahead to it,” he stated.Picture supply, James O’DonoghueImage caption, Dr O’Donoghue stated the photographs can be “game-changing”The JWST is in area so it avoids “our pesky ambiance with its clouds”, Dr O’Donoghue stated.The 2 analysis proposals had been amongst 1,931 submissions for the JWST Cycle 3 Basic Observer Program.The mission will seize photos over the course of a whole day for every planet.The observations of Saturn will happen in late 2024 and Uranus in early 2025.Picture supply, College of ReadingImage caption, An infrared picture of Uranus from the James Webb TelescopeVideo from the College of Studying